The World Through an Absol's Eyes
by NightISkye
Summary: An Absol who loses his mother at a young age must realize that humans aren't what he thought they were. He leaves his home to follow a shiny absol that rescues him, not knowing what would lie ahead for him. Story connected to Nanoman94's Pokémon Saga and Rageofman's "Another Pokemon Story".
1. Chapter 1 - Why I'm This Way

Chapter 1 – Why I'm this Way

My kind, Absol, is known for causing disasters, stereotypically scarred for as long as our species continues to exist. While it is becoming more known that we do not bring or cause disasters, that we only predict them and try to stop them in any way possible, by some manner of thinking, probably human's knack for ignorance, that we are still often hunted and killed on sight. Our kind used to be common, and we would live in packs from six to twenty of our kind, much like Mightyena's, but now we are much rarer to find, and live very solitary lives, away from human civilization mostly.

My story begins just as anyone else's. My mother and father met in a chance occurrence. They mated and my father left short after. To most creatures, this would be an inexcusable act, but for an absol, this is normal. We have grown to prefer our solitary lives, and this is preferred by mothers and father alike. The mothers care for their pups for around 6-8 months simply to teach them basic survival skills, before she leaves as well. I was slightly less fortunate than others of my kind, as my mother would be taken from me by a twist of fate, a desire to help, and the scum species known as _humans_.

The night before Arceus unleashed his curse on me, my mother had an extremely painful vision of a natural disaster. Our visions are always physically and emotionally painful. The only way to comprehend the pain of an absol's vision is to imagine thousands of knives stabbing your head as you are forced to watch countless humans and pokemon perish before you. The more painful the vision is, the closer the disaster is to occurring. I watched my mother cry out in pain, knowing there was no way to help her. After about thirty minutes or so, my mother stopped screaming and falls on her side. I ran up to her just in time to hear her whisper a terrifying sentence.

"The dam is going to burst."

I had never myself seen the dam, but I knew that it was a few miles away from our den, not too far away from Basch Town. If the dam were to flood, the entire town would be wiped out. There would be very few survivors.

"What? How could the dam burst?!"

"I don't know how exactly. The vision wasn't clear."

I could see it in my mother's eyes. She was going to try to warn the town, or even try to prevent the dam from bursting. I had to try to convince her to stay away from the town.

"You can't try to save the town. If they see you, they will try to kill you." I pleaded, as she must have realized this easy possibility.

"I know, but if I save them, they might stop attempting to murder us on sight. We could have a permanent home. We could never have to hunt for food ever again." She had a point, as I had not learned to hunt yet, and food in the area near our den was already scarce.

"But…" Before I could continue my argument, I was interrupted.

"No, I am going to try to help. Stay in the den until I return"

Before I could argue she was already gone. I would always regret not being able to stop her. My mother, Selana.

I wouldn't just say behind. I had to see, had to know, if anything happened to her. I ran out towards the dam, and up the tallest tree. I could see the dam when I reached the top. Nothing appeared wrong with it, and I quickly became caught up in the view of the valley. To the left, Basch Town was off in the distance, the tops of its small houses visible in the clearing it was built in. To the right, the dam stood tall, blocking the lake nearby and controlling the flow of the small river that flowed through Basch Town. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the dam, and I began to assume my mother had seen wrong. I could see the dam's control center, built into the opposite side of the valley from me. It had an all glass front wall to allow the two humans inside to monitor the front of the dam and all around it.

As I was looking into the control room, I saw something that terrified me. My mother had entered the control room with the two humans. I assume she had seen a problem occur in there to cause the disaster, but I don't think she was expecting what would follow her entry. The human near the radio system began yelling into the microphone when he saw her and I assume he was calling for help. The other human grabbed a gun that was hanging on the wall for emergencies, and before he could aim it my mother used a night slash to try to knock it out of his hands. The human flinched when he was hit, pulled the trigger, and accidentally shot the control panels. No more than thirty seconds after, the dam seemed to be moaning, and I soon saw why.

The flood gates had all opened suddenly and the dam couldn't handle the sudden change in water pressure flowing. A crack appeared near the center, and immediately shot up to the top of the dam. From this center crack, hundreds of smaller cracks began to shoot off. In less than a minute, the first chunk of concrete fell, and the rest of the dam followed immediately. The water from the lake rushed out at an unbelievable speed. The entire lake was flooding down into the valley, rushing toward the town, which was completely underwater in little time. Suddenly, I heard a scream from the control room that was loud enough to pierce through the glass wall. My mother had been clubbed by one of the humans, and she was unconscious. They then grabbed her, tied her legs together and carried her out of the room. I knew what would happen now.

She would be taken to where the human's executed pokemon that have caused horrible events to occur. The survivors would blame the disaster on her, as it seems for the first time ever; an absol had actually caused a disaster in the attempt to stop it. How could this be possible? An absol's vision could only predict disasters that would occur whether or not that absol interfered. In my mothers attempt to stop a disaster, she had caused it!

I quickly jumped down from the tree I had been in and began running towards where I assumed the humans would go with their town underwater, the only clearing that could be large enough to host such an event for all of the townsmen to see. It was farther away from my den than I had ever been, and I know that I would probably get lost trying to find it. But I had to try to find her, just in case there was any way to save her. I would have to try to find her scent.

Hours went by as I tried to find even a trace of my mother's scent, and it was dusk before I found the trail. I followed it until I heard the sound of a large crown of humans. There were so many of them that I couldn't see past them without exposing myself. I found another tree and began to scale it, being careful to not make any noise to draw attention to myself. When I finally reached the top, I was horrified. The humans had set up a wooden stage of some kind. My mother was completely tied up in the center, with a male human yelling into the crowd next to her. I couldn't tell what exactly he was saying, but I was sure I heard the terms "_White Demon" _and "_Spawn of Giratina himself." _He seemed to be the person in charge.

Suddenly, he rose his hand up, and the entire crowd fell silent. My mother must have smelled me, because she suddenly lifted her head to look at me. The man on stage pulled out a small silver gun, which I would later learn is known as a revolver. My mother He aimed it at her and my mother screamed out to me something that pokemon only said as a final goodbye.

"Ashes to Ashes!" she yelled to me. Her sudden yell startled some of the humans as they had no idea what she had said. Tears fell from my eyes as I realized she did not want me to try to save her.

"Dust to Dust!" I foolishly yelled back to my mother, finishing the goodbye and revealing myself to the entire crowd. The man with the revolver noticed me and fearing I would attack pulled the trigger with a loud BANG, ending my mother where she lied. I had no time to mourn, as the crowd was yelling for my own death, and I quickly began to scale down the tree. A rifle shot rang out, and the branch underneath me snapped, causing me to fall several feet onto the ground. Fear immediately kicked in, as another shot rang out hitting the ground less than a foot from me.

I ran, the sounds of the crowd behind me, back to where I thought my den was. More shots rang out with every few steps, and I heard bullets hitting everything around me. The shouts from the humans began to die out behind me, and gunfire completely disappeared. Following the scent of home, I finally reached my den and fell over, exhausted by the run I had just been forced to make, and fell asleep quickly. The last sound I heard was some distant humans, no doubt looking for me, and the sound of another absol howling.

(A/N) My first chapter of my first story. Hopefully it doesn't suck like I seem to think it does and I do hope you enjoyed chapter 1.


	2. Chapter 2 - Mourning Beauty

Chapter 2 – Mourning Beauty

I awoke a few hours later, the sound of the gunshot that took my mother's life ringing in my ears still. I walked out of my den to stretch, and went down to the pond nearby for a drink. As I was enjoying my drink, I heard sounds coming from the underbrush near me. Fear set in immediately, and I took a defensive pose. I hadn't learned how to fight yet, and with my mother gone, it was going to be hard to self-train myself. I knew if a human emerged from the brush, I wouldn't stand a chance, as he or she would most likely be armed and had been looking for me. As the sounds approached the edge of the brush, I heard the howl of the other absol again, and a cry of pain came from the brush, before silence hit. After a few minutes of silence, I began to creep near the brush, the smell of blood hitting my nose. Before I had reached the brush, I saw a human in the brush, gun on the ground, blood pouring from a large gash in his neck. I screamed in shock and fear that whoever had done this would be waiting for the moment to kill me as well.

I ran towards my den, and I could swear to Arceus I heard the sounds of many footsteps behind me. As my den came into sight, a mightyena jumped in between me and my home. I turned to run back the other way, but another mightyena appeared that way, as well as on both my sides. Soon there must have been at least fifteen surrounding me. I knew I couldn't fight them all, and fell to the ground in submission, hoping they would take pity on me. Some began to advance on me, and I knew this was the end. Dead before I could have the chance to experience life. Then, an absol jumped down near me. The mightyena immediately stopped, and the ones that had advanced fell back to their original positions. I couldn't believe this many mightyena would back down from one absol, but then I realized something was off about this absol. He had red skin, instead of dark blue.

"Stand down, my children" he said.

Any mightyena that seemed to still be thinking of attacking me stopped showing any intent. How was he controlling these mightyena like this? Then I realized what he had said fully. He had mightyena as children? Or was this just a pack name? Was he the leader of a pack of mightyena?

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am the one who saved you from being killed by the water. The human you saw dead was about to pull the trigger on you," he responded almost flatly.

"Saved me? Why would you save me? You know nothing about me."

"I do know some things about you. I know that those humans in town killed your mother last night. I know you are all alone at an age that almost guarantees your death. You need someone to train you to survive now, and I will help you if you agree to listen to my instructions."

I was not expecting to be offered training, and it seemed almost too easy. I would receive training from an absol that was skilled enough to lead a pack of mightyena and kill a human armed with a gun.

"Is there a catch I should know about?"

"I suppose I should tell you that I will train you so that you can kill humans. You will have to kill anyone I tell you to. Any human is a potential target as well."

Killing humans? The idea seemed insane. How could I kill a human? I remembered the execution of my mother and felt an urge inside myself. I didn't want to kill humans, but at the same time, I felt like I had to. I pondered over the idea for a second.

"I accept your offer, then. May I ask the name of who will be training me though?"

"Abita, but from here on out, you shall refer to me as father."

-One year later-

Training. This had been my life for a year, and now I couldn't believe it. Abita, I mean, Father, was now just leaving with his pack. In a year he said he had taught me all he could. How could I believe this? I still hadn't learned the techniques for any offence. I had only learned how to counter. I had actually mastered the techniques for countering, and could reverse any attack that was thrown at me. Father told me that from here on out, I would have to develop my own fighting style. I had to play on my strengths, and apparently throwing attacks was not one of them. He told me that I owed him nothing for the year of training he had given me, and I said I was ok with this, but I wasn't. In truth, he was right, but he had done more than train me for the past year. He had given me a year of protection. He had also killed any human who had attempted to hunt me down. For this, I owed him. And after he left, I planned to follow him. I let a week go by, continuing my training on my own, before I left to follow him. I didn't want to find out he had not gone far to see if I would obey his wishes to stay behind. I knew that I would repay my debt eventually.

-Fifteen more years later-

Damn it Abita, I thought to myself. I was now deep in another region of the world I had never been. Abita had now been out of my home region of Hoenn, through Kanto and Johto, and now was in Sinnoh. I had never caught up to him like I had planned to, and it seems like the closer I got to him, the farther he would be in a few days.

I leaned from a few native pokemon I was now near a town known as Chapperton. I had never heard of this town, and apparently it was not on the humans town maps yet. I had grown used to the smell of blood being near town I knew Abita had been through, but this blood smelled different. As I thought this, a pack of mightyena ran past me. I knew the smell of that pack. It was Abita's. I stopped the largest member of them to ask what was going on, not expecting the answer I would receive.

"Abita is dead. He was killed in a battle with his own daughter, Pandora, or Talia; I don't know what her name was. I heard her called both. No one knew until after the fighting was over that she was his daughter, and she seemed to be more hurt by this information than anyone else was. I don't know if we should avenge Father, or help his daughter," he said in a panicked voice.

"I will handle this. Thank you, brother."

I continued on. How could Abita be dead? This makes no sense. I couldn't repay my debt now. It would haunt me forever, as I always take debts to be more serious than anything else in this world. The mightyena had been right though. Could the debt be repaid by taking revenge, or helping his daughter? I decided I would try to get to know this 'Pandora' or 'Talia' and decide after that. I would also need to know her name, as everything was more confusing not knowing which it was. After no more than another half hour of running, I reached a clearing. A female absol was lying on top of what appeared to be a grave. She seemed to be the saddest creature ever to live on this planet.

I didn't need to get to know her. I could see easily, the debt would be repaid by helping her. As I was about to jump down to greet her, an ursaring came charging out, yelling something about her being trespassing in his territory. She didn't seem to be able to think clearly as to what to do at that moment, as she only turned her head towards the charging bear. As he reached her, I lunged out of the forest and tackled the ursaring out of the way, causing him to fly into a tree. He got up and began to charge at me now. The counter was too easy. As he reached me I hooked his leg with my head blade and flipped him onto his back. I jumped on him, helped my tail to his throat, and yelled out.

"Leave her alone here, or die where you lay!"

The ursaring appeared to be caught in pure fear, as he nodded his head. As I got off of him, he got up and ran off into the forest. I turned to the female to see she had been looking at me only for a second, before she turned back to the grave to mourn again. I felt truly sorry for her, and approached her to sit next to her. She reacted in an unsurprising way, and as I sat down she turned to lash out at me. I jumped out of the way and backed up a bit. She wanted to be alone, but I couldn't leave her here. If I left the ursaring might return to attack her while I was gone.

"Please, let me just stay here."

The answer I got surprised me, not by what it was, but how it was said.

"I can't understand you. I cannot speak in or understand pokemon speech." She said this in perfect human, and I was stunned.

I thought for a moment, and then began to draw letters in the dirt with my claw.

_Please, let me stay. Let me try to comfort you. I knew Abita too. He trained me and protected me from human hunters for the first year of my life. At least let me stay to say goodbye to him._

She seemed to be torn about something, as she answered with a "Fine," and lied back down. Once again I sat down next to her. I noticed as I sat there that even through the tear lines on the face and the distraught on her face, she looked rather amazing. I managed learn more about her as I sat next to her. I would write out questions in the ground, and she would answer in human. Her name is Talia, and up to Abita's death, she had been known as Pandora. She was the same age as me, 16, and had killed Abita for revenge. He had killed the humans in the town she grew up in. I wrote out my story, and she seemed more comforted knowing that she wasn't the only one who had lost family at a young age. We sat in silence for a while before I heard something behind us. I smelled him before I turned to look at him. It was some_ human_ and his mere presence was pissing me off. The last thing Talia would need at a time like this was some scum human showing up and disrupting the peace this place had held since the ursaring had left.

"Talia?" He said. How did he know her name?

"Zack, I didn't think you would be back-" Talia began, but this human interrupted, and I wanted to cut his throat out for his interruption.

"Who is Arceus's name is that?" he asked.

"Who in Arceus's name are you?" I responded in a low growl.

(A/N Chapter 2 is here. I hope you enjoy, and for more on the events leading up to this, make sure to read Nanoman94's story "To See the World". Nanoman94 owns the OC's Abita, Talia, and Zack.)


	3. Chapter 3 - He Can't Be Different

Chapter 3 – He Can't Be Different

The human raised his hands up, signaling that he means no harm, but I can't trust him. No wild pokemon could trust a human when he said he wouldn't attack.

"My name is Zack, and I am a friend of Talia here," the human responded while gesturing to her, but not normally. He spoke in the pokemon language. What the hell is going on? Talia can't speak my language, but this human comes out of nowhere and can speak to me in my language. Could he understand me too?

"I merely came here to check up on her; she's been here all day long. I needed to know she was okay," he said.

"She is fine, now leave, _Human_." I spit the last word. This was his warning to leave. If he didn't pick up on it, he would deserve his fate. He muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Nothing, I was talking to myself," he responded. He walked over to Talia and placed his hand on her neck. "Are you alright?" He asked her in the human language.

"Yes… I'll meet you back in town, don't worry. I just… need to think," was her response. To my luck he began to leave, until he stopped at where I had fought the ursaring. He pulled out some device that identified the ursaring's footprints.

"I defended her from an ursaring attack, yes," I said.

"Well, then I guess I have to thank you. Talia is a good friend," he replied. "Might I have your name? I'm Zack."

His question of my name surprised me. Why did he need to know my name? He wasn't going to stay around me was he? Did he forget that I told him to leave? I shook my head for a second to clear the questions from my mind and decided to tell him what his _species_ calls me.

"I am known as Spawn of Giratina, The White Devil…" I began, but the human made his first major mistake. He cut me off while I was speaking.

"Those sound more like insults. You must have an actual name, the one your parents gave you."

I flew into rage as memories of my mother came back to me. The name she gave me! I couldn't tell anyone what it was. It was soft, weak, and this human had brought the memories back and whether he meant to or not, it wouldn't matter soon.

"My father left us, and my mother was killed by one of your kind. I do not remember my name," I yelled at him. I crouched and planned my attack as I spoke. His arm looked off. It might be damaged somewhat already, and would make an easy weak spot to hit. "It does not matter. You need not learn my name, since you'll never be able to tell anyone!"

I jumped straight for his arm, but he had somehow sidestepped, and only my horn scraped his jacket.

"What the hell?" I heard him yell.

"I swore to kill your kind when I could. You're on your own, so that makes you an easier target!" Another lunge, teeth barred, and I caught his arm as I planned. But something was wrong; my teeth began to slide off. As my teeth slid down his arm, I found his hand, felt a crevice, and bit as hard as I could, and felt my bite sink in, but with no blood.

"What's wrong? Can't get a good enough grip?" he said in a way that sounded almost like mocking.

He flung his arm and I let go, landing a bit away. I was furious. He thought he could just mock me like that! He took off his jacket that was torn apart, and revealed that his arm was some kind of machine.

"I'll drop you, mutant midget!" I screamed, preparing to throw another attack.

"What did you just say!? Nobody calls me a midget and gets away with it!" He yelled back at me.

I had struck a nerve, and I was glad that I had. The human was playing into my field now as he ran at me to attack. I ran at him ready to hook his arm with my horn when suddenly I was hit on the side and fell over. As I shook off the impact to look to see what happened, I saw the human on the ground shaking himself off as well, and there was Talia, standing where we had just been about to collide.

"What is wrong with you two? I'm trying to mourn here." She angrily said. "Get along or I'll rip both your throats out." She was being serious, and I smirked as an idea slipped into my mind.

"Don't worry Talia, I'll stop. It was only in self-defense anyway," the human spoke.

I stood up and set my idea in motion. "On one condition," I said quickly. I jumped at Talia and before she could react placed a quick kiss on her cheek. I immediately jumped back to see a night slash slice the air where I had just been. I smiled a little as she glared at me.

"Whatever. Now, leave me alone, both of you." She walked back to the grave of her father, and laid back down.

The human began to walk towards town, and I approached Talia one last time, even though I might be attacked after the stunt I had just pulled. I needed to know at least some of what was going on.

"Just go, follow Zack. He won't try to hurt you as long as you don't attack him again. Don't kill him either," she said. It was like she knew that I was looking for some answers. I clawed into the ground _'Thank you'_ and left. I wasn't happy with her last request though, but I had to respect it. I couldn't kill this human, Zack she said? Or at least not yet. I caught up to him quickly.

As I approached him, he said "I never got your name."

Did this human not listen to anything I had said before? "I said I don't remember it. Be careful with your questions; I'm not killing you only on Talia's wishes." I made the last part clear.

"You like her or something?" he asked.

"Shut up" I said back. He laughed a little, and I held back the urge to make it so he couldn't laugh ever again. He shook down some berries from a nearby bush and offered me one. I cursed myself mentally as my stomach growled and I accepted the berry. I hated accepting something from this human.

"So, what's your story?" he said as he ate. "Why do you hate humans so much?"

"Why do you want to know?" I asked back.

"Just curious as to why someone would try to kill me," he said.

Well, he wanted to know, so I told him my story, of my mother, the dam, the town of humans, and the execution.

"Did Abita tell you the truth?"

"About what?"

"Himself" was the response I had gotten. He told me about Abita being Talia's father, which I already knew. But the rest, the rest was unbelievable. Abita had apparently been born as a human, but when testing a medicine, had been transformed into an absol. His motives were drawn from his desire to get revenge on the ones who had transformed him, but also because they had taken Talia from him. The story behind Abita was more than I had ever imagined, and I understood why Abita had his hatred for humans. (A/N) [More info can be found in Nanoman94's story]

"He said all this?"

"Yeah. Talia can back me up if you don't believe me." He said.

I scratched at the ground, letting this new information roll around in my mind for a second.

"Zack, right? Thanks… for explaining that to me…" I said. I then shook my head. I had just thanked a _human_ What did he do? How had he gotten to my softer side for a second? He had to make sure that Zack still understood my position on him. "But that doesn't mean I trust you. I'm only hanging out with Talia."

"Ha, fine," he responded, "but… let me tell you something,"

"What?"

"I can tell your into Talia."

"I'm not…" I began, but stopped. I had just kissed her for a split second right in front of him. How could I try to deny it?

"And if you want to travel with her, you'll need to travel with me. And you'll need a name" He said.

"I don't remember my name, though. It's been too long." I hoped I could keep this lie going. I wouldn't tell anyone my real name.

"Which is why I'm giving you one until we learn your real name. Welcome to the group, Dusk."

Dusk? Did I want this name? It would work. He wouldn't need to know the truth.

(A/N) Shorter than my first two chapters. Dusk, the Absol who hates humans, but what is it with this one human, Zack. Why was he so different? What is Dusk's real name and why is it such a secret? Maybe you will find out in my next chapter, but until I upload it, keep guessing. ~ Night


	4. Chapter 4 - Bittersweet, or is it Sour?

Chapter 4 – Bitter Sweet, or is it Sour?

Zack had wandered off. He knew I barely tolerated his presence, and it seemed he finally learned not to stay near me. The sun was beginning to set as I wondered how Talia was. I shouldn't have left her. The ursaring could still be lurking in the area, waiting for me to leave her alone to strike. Fear shot through me as different scenarios flew through my head. What if she was hurt, or worse, dead? I ran as fast as my legs would let me while trying to convince myself I was just being paranoid.

As I reached the clearing the grave was in, I saw that everything was the same. Nothing had happened. Talia was still lying down near the grave. She still looked as sad as when I had first saw her, and it made my heart ache seeing someone so beautiful in such a bad place. Wait. What was I thinking? I was to protect her. What made that go through my head? I shook off what I had been thinking, and approached Talia, hiding my heavy breathing from my sprint back. She turned to me, sighed, and got up and began walking towards me. She didn't look as sad now that she had seen me, but she didn't look much better, as she appeared to be annoyed by seeing me.

"Why are you back again? I just want to be left alone," she said with emphasis on 'alone'.

She was definitely not too happy to see me. I started to speak before remembering she couldn't understand me. I began clawing words into the ground. _I just wanted to make sure you were safe._

"Do you not think I can protect myself or something?" she half spat.

_No, but I do owe your safety to Abita._

"Well, I don't need your protection. I can defend myself just fine."

_I believe you can, but I still want to make sure myself._

"Why? What can you protect me from that I can't handle myself?"

_There are some things that might be too much for you to handle yourself._

I could tell she didn't like that response by the look she gave me.

"And you think you can handle what I can't?"

_Well, now that you mention it, I did save you once already_.

The glare I received for that one sent shivers down my entire body.

"What?!" she yelled at me. "Are you suggesting that you are stronger than me?"

_As a matter of fact, yes I-_

I didn't finish writing that sentence out as a night slash was sent at me. I sidestepped the attack quickly. I wasn't going to do anything to hurt her, but I don't see why I shouldn't have a bit of fun. I jumped to her side and gave her a shove just strong enough to knock her over before I jumped back to a safe distance. She spun around to get up, and I had to say, the way she had chosen to get up was impressive, and maybe even a little attractive as well. I snapped out of the trance I was in to see a shadow ball flying at me. I sent out a night slash that split the ball in half and made it land around me. I couldn't help but laugh at how easily her first attacks had been to dodge. Unfortunately, she heard me laugh, and screamed as a focus blast was sent my way at high speeds. I barely managed to jump over it to find Talia was right behind it jumping up to slash at me. I parried the attack she made, and it caused us to both jump back from each other. The force behind those attacks had been stronger than I had expected, and I began to wonder if she was trying to kill me as another night slash went past my face, almost taking my nose off. As I looked back at Talia, I saw she was running full speed at me. The sight made me smile. The fight was over. I began to back up quickly as she ran towards me, before suddenly stopping and lunging right at her, catching her off guard as I bit her horn, flipped her over onto her back, and pinned her down. She struggled to free herself, and I could feel her trying to free a leg to swipe at me, but I had her completely immobilized.

"Get off me you son of a b-" she started, but I interrupted her with a kiss on her lips. Any struggling under me stopped. She had been stunned by my unexpected action. I jumped off her and she slowly stood up, her face full of confusion. After a second, she shook her head, and began advancing on me to attack again. She stopped dead in her tracks though, as suddenly howls could be heard all around us. Before she could to turn to see what was howling, six houndoom emerged from the forest and began running straight at Talia. I jumped in front of her and beat back three, before I felt a burning sensation in my leg. One of the hounds had bitten my leg with a fire fang. He twisted his head and I was thrown into a tree. As I started to get up, I saw Talia get hit by a faint attack and was now flying towards me.

"Oh shi-"

Talia hit me and I was knocked into the tree again. I looked up to see Talia screaming something fierce as she charges straight at the pack. She knocks four of the houndoom into the air in different directions before the last two both body slam her and she lands near me again. I get up, still shaking off the previous impacts when I hear Talia.

"Are you going to help me, or just stand there?"

I laugh a bit and take position to attack. As Talia runs into the pack again, she starts launching focus blasts, night slashes, and shadow balls in all directions. I follow behind her knocking any houndoom that gets past her wave of attacks. As long as I was standing, none of these mutts were going to hurt Talia again. Every once in a while, one of Talia's attacks would fly at me, and I was sure these weren't accidents. She wasn't happy that I had managed to pin her, and it seems some of her rage towards me was still lingering for now. After about ten minutes of fighting, the houndoom began to flee into the night as they realized they weren't getting anywhere against both of us. It was night already? Hadn't the sun still been setting before? As the last houndoom disappeared, I saw Talia lie down to catch her breath. The adrenaline from our fight and the houndoom fight was depleted from her body. I sat down next to her.

_Tired already?_ I wrote into the ground.

"What? No!" she responded quickly.

I chuckled a little. _Of course not_

"However, I guess I should thank you for helping me fight the houndoom," she says.

_You don't have to thank me. A you were right would be nice to hear though._

"Don't push your luck." She stopped for a moment. "But," she growled a little, "Yes, you were."

_Don't worry Talia. I promise you won't have to say that too often._

"Maybe you should stick around though," she said quietly.

_Really? What made you change your mind? I thought you wanted to be alone._

"Does it matter what it was? You seemed to be planning to stick around anyway."

_Well then, I guess I'm here to stay. You should know Zack decided that my name should be Dusk until I remember my real name._

I didn't like lying to her. It was easier to lie to that stupid human.

"Dusk? That's a nice name." she said.

I looked at where Abita was buried. Being near her father's grave was keeping her depressed. She needed to be away from it. Not forever, but for a while.

I drew an arrow in front of her towards Abita's grave._ You should say your last goodbye._

"Why? I don't need to leave," she said in a rushed voice. She stopped to think for a moment and I could see a battle inside her. She was torn between what felt right and what was right. "Fine."

She walked over to the grave and sat down next to it. I wandered out of earshot to respect Talia's privacy. This was for her to say and for no one else to hear. This was her goodbye. About half an hour went by before she got up and began walking back towards me. I decided that I should say goodbye too. I wasn't much for goodbyes, but Abita deserved one for all he did for me. I walked over to the grave.

"I owe you my life Abita, and I don't believe I can ever repay the debt I have to you. I can try to though, so I promise that until I die, I shall keep your daughter safe from harm. Goodbye, Father."

This was all I needed to say, and I walked back to Talia who questioned how short I had said my farewells. I assured her all that should be said had been, and we began walking towards town. As it came into view, I stopped. I wouldn't go into the town where the _humans _were.

_You can go into town if you want. I will stay on the edge of the forest._

Talia thought for a moment. "I'm going to stay here too. Zack can go without me for a little longer."

I was surprised she wanted to stay out in the forest with me. Wouldn't she prefer to be around Zack, who she had been around for who knows how long. I wasn't going to complain though. I gathered some berried and made sure I found a rawst berry for the burn that I still had on my leg. The rest of the berries I wouldn't eat though. They were sour, and I couldn't stand any sour foods. Talia didn't seem to mind though, as she quickly grabbed the sour berried and in a flash she had eaten them all. Apparently, she loved sour foods. I didn't need any more food than the rawst berry really. I wasn't really that hungry.

For most of the night, I cleaned my fur in the pond that was nearby. I hated it when there was dirt on me. I took pride in keeping my coat as clean as possible at all times, and the fight with Talia and the houndoom had covered me in dirt and mud. Talia seemed happy that she had caused me displeasure when I told her how much I hated to have dirty fur. After I had made sure every speck of dirt was off me, I spent the rest of the night sharpening my horn, tail, claws, anything I could on the trees. If cleanness was my obsession, then sharpening my blades was my favorite pass time. I loved it. My horn and my tail were things for me to be proud of. There wasn't much for me to be proud of, so I had decided that I would make sure I had a clean coat and a sharp horn and tail to always be proud of. I was finishing sharpening my tail when I saw Talia climb up onto a branch to sleep on. I realized it had gotten pretty late, and decided that I was in a decent enough condition to sleep. I climbed up into a branch close to where Talia was. As I settled down onto my branch, I saw Talia was already asleep. I smiled to myself, as she looked beautiful. I put my head down to sleep. There wasn't much for me to deny to myself. I was definitely attracted to Talia. The last thing I though was a question. How much?


	5. Chap 5 - Two Friends - Hopeful Thinking

Chapter 5 – Two Friends and Hopeful Thinking

It was early when I woke. I had just begun to open my eyes when I felt a slight push on my side. I turned to see what it was, but as I moved, there was a large push and I fell off the tree I had been in and fell into some half-dried mud.

"What the hell!" I yelled out as I looked up to see Talia on the branch I had been enjoying my sleep laughing uncontrollably. I stood up to see most of my fur matted down by dirt and mud. I had just lost the hours I had spent last night cleaning. Talia jumped off the branch still laughing a little.

"Consider that payback for screwing with my attacks in our fight."

I sighed at this and went to clean my fur again. When I finished, I found Talia lying down finishing off the last of the berries. As I approached, Zack came out of the forest. I growled as Talia spoke.

"Zack? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm saying goodbye," he responded. He then told her of some plan to use a Meloetta to go and speak to Arceus about getting his pokemon that had passed away revived. The plan sounded insane to me, and strengthened my belief that this human, and all others, were just flat out stupid.

"I understand, Zack. Good luck." Talia responded.

I said nothing, half-hoping that this human might catch Arceus at a bad time if he somehow succeeds to get his audience. The thought of never seeing this human ever again brought a smile to my face as he walked away.

It occurred to me after he was completely gone, why was Talia even following this human. Any hold a pokeball could have on her she was easily strong enough to break. I approached her and wrote the question out into the ground. She only stared at the question before responding.

"I'm not sure now. I was traveling with him to find Abita, but now the only reason is because he's a friend"

_So are you going to stay with him, or head back to wherever your home is._ I could see an opportunity to leave with Talia and never have to deal with Zack again if he did succeed with his plan and return alive.

"I..." Talia paused for a while. "I think I'm going to head home, but Zack wants me to keep an eye on everyone."

_I'm sure they can handle themselves_

" But what if he needs me for something."

_Tell someone where you are going so that if he does need you he can find you._

She thought about it for a while.

"Ok, I will be back in a few minutes."

She walked off towards town. In a few minutes, she returned just like she said she would with a dusk ball in her mouth.

_What's that for?_

"I don't now, it's my pokeball."

_Ok, so where is your home anyway._

"Petalburg Woods. There's a town nearby that has a ship that can take us to Hoenn. Zack's friend told me when I said I was going back home."

_Ok, so lets go then_.

We left for the town, and in a few hours, we arrived. I was surprised it hadn't been that far away. Talia went into town to find out what time the ship was leaving. While she was gone, I saw some scientists outside of some building that had a sign that said Pokemon Lab. They talked about some prototype necklace that acted as a translator to any language that was inside the lab. This was what I needed to actually talk to Talia. Stealing wasn't on the top of my favorite things to do, but from humans I didn't think it would be too bad. Talia returned to tell me the ship left at noon the next day.

We stayed outside the town until night. When Talia went to sleep, I snuck out to the town and began looking for a way into the lab. I found a loose air vent grate and quietly pried it off. I squeezed inside and found that I barely fit. I began crawling the best I could to the first exit I saw. I quietly pried off this grate as well, but it was on tighter and made a loud bang when it fell off. I waited a while to make sure no one had heard the bang before climbing out. I looked around the room to see I was I the main room. I searched any drawers I could find before moving to the next room. I saw a safe in the corner and saw it was locked by a small key lock. I began cutting it off with my sharpened tail and in no time, the metal lock fell off and I opened to safe to see a necklace with a small diamond on it. I assumed this was the necklace, grabbed it, and quickly ran back to the vents, climbed out, and ran back to where Talia was sleeping still. I placed the necklace carefully around Talia who didn't wake. I climbed up a tree and fell asleep on a branch.

I woke next morning to see Talia still asleep. I went down to the beach to clean up some dirt that I had picked up from traveling and last night. As I arrived, I saw a trainer with his Umbreon and Espeon. He was yelling loudly at them and holding a metal rod. I couldn't believe this human as he hit the Umbreon with it. He went to swing at the Espeon, but I was already there slamming into him. He got up screaming at me now and commanding his pokemon to attack me now. They just sat there though, and I jumped onto him. He had two pokeballs on his belt ans I assumed they were for the two pokemon watching. I slashed them off his belt and they fell to the ground. I put one paw on each of them before stepping down as hard as I could and causing them both to crack and fall into two pieces. The Espeon and the Umbreon glowed blue for a second indicating their release. The trainer saw me now approaching him and ran as fast as he could back into town. I turned to the two pokemon I had released and the Espeon spoke first.

"Thank you for freeing us from him." she said gratefully.

"It's no problem. I couldn't let some scum human hurt any pokemon like that."

"My name is Shine," she said, "and this is Shade." She gestured to the Umbreon who nodded slightly.

"My name," I paused as I remembered my actual name, "is Dusk."

"Well Dusk, how can we repay you for rescuing us," she said cheerfully.

"You don't have to do anything. I am leaving Sinnoh today anyway"

"No, we have to repay you somehow. Let us come with you. We don't have anywhere else to go anyway."

Shade looked displeased at coming with me and Talia until Shine looked at him and he forced a smile.

"Alright," I said, "follow me then."

I led them back to Talia who was observing her new necklace. I decided to test it out now.

"Good morning, Talia," I said.

Talia jumped at my words. "Did you just speak to me?"

"Yes. The necklace your wearing can translate languages."

"Where did you find it?"

I paused at her question for a second.

"I found it in town last night."

"You just found a necklace?"

"Yea. Do you like it?"

She stared at me suspiciously. "Yea. It looks nice. Who are these two?"

Shine spoke up. "My name is Shine, and this is Shade."

"Talia," she said.

"They are coming with us, if you don't mind," I said.

"Ok then."

I looked at Shine and saw now she had a small bag wrapped around her neck around to her side.

"Do you have anything in your bag Shine?"

"No, why?"

"We need to hide the necklace I found when we go back into town to get on the ship."

"Ok, let me see it."

Talia removed the necklace and Shine placed it in her bag. Talia then took her dusk ball and placed it into the bag as well.

"Alright," I said," lets go now."

As we walked towards town, Shine asked me why we needed a necklace that translates. I explained to her why and she just nodded.

We walked through town and saw the ship that was marked to be heading to Slateport City. We snuck onto she ship when no security guards were looking and hid below deck where there was large crates of items being stored. As we settled down, we felt the ship set off. The trip shouldn't take too long, two days at most, and then we can begin heading to Petalburg Forest. There was food and water stored below deck with us, so we wouldn't have to worry about either of those. Hopefully, everything from here would be smooth sailing.

(A/N) Sorry this chapter took so long. Spring break was here and school was out. That and I had gotten the new Need For Speed Most Wanted game. Hopefully, I won't go this long without an update again.


	6. Chapter 6 - Visions of the Coming Future

We spent the next few days, a bit longer than anticipated, hiding in the cargo hold. Not the most fun thing to do. Thankfully my boredom was due to end soon as the ship was to arrive within the next day. Talia, Shade, Shine and I agreed that it was best to head north to Mauville and then west, all the way to Rustboro. Still, we had to wait in the ship's storage for the rest of the trip. Stowaways aren't exactly treated well, especially when there are two Absols. I was standing watch while Talia rested and the two Eeveelutions talked to each other quietly wondering to myself why I had never had a vision like normal Absols do. Every once in a while I pondered the thoguht, but I could never come to a conclusion. Without warning, my head suddenly burst open in pain. I glanced around frantically as my vision faded to black. For moments I saw nothingness, a dark and empty void. I only felt the pain I was in. The scene slowly changed, morphing from the darkness to the image of what looked like a large city. Buildings towered higher than I could imagine, decorated with giant flags with a peculiar looking shield P-shaped lightning bolt design on them.

Loud cracking echoed from the city streets as color slowly flowed into the image I saw. The sky was a grim black color, painted in odd patterns from fires that burned throughout the city. Suddenly I found myself floating above the source of the sound. There were humans fighting each other from what it looked like. What looked like a group of freedom fighters were defending a large barricade while a much larger group of trained human soldiers marched onto them. Upon closer inspection revealed that the fighters were actually a bunch of kids no older than Zack. The soldiers wore armor that made them resemble the knights of old, decorated with the same symbol I had seen on the flags. The weapons both sides used I had never seen before but the sound they produced I remembered all too well.

I looked around and spotted a green-haired girl that was perched on a higher, well concealed part of a destroyed building firing a long weapon. I found myself standing next to her, close enough to hear her breathe. She sucked in air and held her breath as she looked through a strange optical device attached to her gun. She pulled the trigger, letting out a deafening crack as her shot met its mark, killing a soldier with a single shot. I watched the fight from the position and noticed a small, green flash amongst the gray concrete painted red with blood. Momentarily I could see what looked like a Pokemon, one I had never seen before, that was attacking soldiers that managed to get over the barricade. Seeing a pokemon fighting these humans battle enraged me, and I wished this was more than a vision so I could intervene.

A whooshing sound echoed from the other side of the barricade as a strange projectile followed by a trail of smoke headed in our direction. The girl screamed, diving out of the sniping point at the last moment. A deafening roar of the projectile's resulting explosion tore out tons of concrete, decimating the position. I watched as the girl tumbled down the rubble running down the side of the destroyed building. She was still alive when she landed, I somehow ended up standing over her, but I could see a thin long piece of metal that pierced her shoulder. Ruby red blood oozed from the wound as she whimpered quietly in pain. The small green Pokemon appeared out of nowhere, quickly rushing to the girl. She was about to say something when I was suddenly whisked away from the scene.

Again I found myself in another high point, inside a building. I was above the carnage that raged on, the humans still killing each other in a brutal fashion. Looking around I saw Talia running towards me, running for her life as humans chased her, firing torrents of bullets that ripped apart the plaster walls and glass windows of the hallway. An explosion blew out the side of the building as Talia ran, sending her down along with tons of concrete, metal and glass that rained down on the freedom fighters. I couldn't get myself to look away as I saw Talia land on the ground with a sickening crunch. She cried out for help but a large chunk of rock quickly silenced her. A pool of blood oozed out from the pile. I was horrified.

I screamed Talia's name, shutting my eyes for a split second. I felt the sharp pains in my head fade out and when I opened my eyes I found myself back in the cargo hold of the ship we stowed away in. Talia, Shade and Shine were staring at me.

"What's wrong, Dusk?" I looked at Talia, she was okay. Without thinking I pounced on her and held her tightly.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Talia struggled to shake me off but failed to do so. As a result I felt a stinging pain in my side as Talia stabbed me with her claws. "GET OFF OF ME!" I jumped back just in time as she swung her tail at me. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" I shook my head and attempted to regain my former pride that was destroyed by that sudden act.

"Sorry, I just saw a vision and got scared." Talia sat back down and licked her paws.

"Keep off of me next time, you wuss, or I'll rip your throat out." The insult stung my already mangled pride but I kept silent.

My three companions all went to sleep as I continued keeping watch. I was glad that Talia was okay but I was worried about my vision. An Absol's vision tends to come true I was worried. The part that confused me was that none of that vision had to do with natural disasters, only a disaster caused by humans. Still baffled, I spent the rest of the night keeping watch until it was Shade's turn.

I was rudely awoken by Talia. "The ship's going to arrive in Slateport soon. Get ready."

I got up and followed her as she slipped around a few crates to an area that was a bit far from Shade and Shine. As I turned another corner Talia suddenly turned towards me.

"So what did you see?" she said seriously, glaring deeply into my eyes.

"Huh?" I asked, caught off-guard by the sudden question,

"What was your vision last night?" She didn't take her eyes off me as she tried to determine what I had seen.

"It was nothing," I said quickly. This wasn't the answer she wanted to hear apparently.

"Nothing!" she screamed, "Nothing doesn't make you scream my name and then pounce on me! What did you see?" I shrank back at the sudden yell. "Tell. Me. Now!" she said as she waved her tail threateningly.

"You cant force it out of me. Last time we fought you couldn't even touch me." I turned away from the seething Absol. "It was nothing, simple as that." I sighed as I turned back towards her before something flashed towards me and before I could react pain surged through my left eye, leaving a wall of red in my vision. I looked at Talia, blood dripping from her tail.

"Now tell me what-" I snarled savagely at her and jumped on her, pinning her down and placed my horn on her neck. The entire act caught her unprepared and she didn't have time to react. I pressed down on her, anger pushing me on. A drop of blood fell onto her cheek from my eye, and suddenly, I realized what I was doing. Talia's eyes had no fight in them, just a never ending pool of pure fear. Immediately, I removed my horn from her neck and a sigh of relief came from her. Terror filled my heart thinking of what I had almost done, and I could only manage to mouth the words ' I'm sorry' to her. She slowly nodded, not all of her own fear gone yet apparently.

"It's ok," she whispered. I wiped the drop of blood off of her cheek carefully, and then proceeded to release her from her pinned position. I felt pain sear through my eye again, and realized that it might be seriously hurt. I tried to hide the pain from Talia, but I could tell she knew how much pain I was in.

"I'm sorry about your eye," she spoke softly. I looked at her, sorrow and lingering fear mixed in her eyes. I didn't know what to say, and before I knew it, I had walked up to Talia and kissed her. She backed up a little from the action, but surprised me when she returned the kiss. It felt that we stayed there for ages before the kiss was broken.

"It wasn't your fault, Talia. I should have told you what I saw, and I shouldn't have said what I did." I proceeded to tell her everything I had seen in the vision. The city, the fighting humans, the strange girl in the building, and of Talia's own demise. She never spoke as I explained what was seen, and made no comments when I finished. She stood for a bit, before telling me to look for medical supplies for my eye. I figured she was still registering everything I said, and needed time to think.

We searched the entire ship's cargo. Most of the crates we searched had food, but we managed to find enough supplies to efficiently care for my eye. The bleeding stopped and the wound that was visibly above and below my eye even began to heal a little. The red wall that had stopped my vision was replaced with a wall of black covering the left half of my field of vision. I was half-blind. Talia said my eye itself had healed unusually as well. The white of my eye was now the red color of my iris, and my iris itself had turned pure white. My left eye's color scheme was flipped. I told Talia of my blindness in my eye, and she immediately showed signs of guilt.

"Please don't blame yourself Talia It's not your fault," I pleaded to her.

"But it is my fault! I cut your eye." she said gloomily.

"I refuse to blame you I only request that you don't blame yourself either."

"Fine," she said unconvincingly. "So, how can we prevent the vision you had?"

"Well, the city I saw was bigger than any city I have seen in Hoenn, so I figure if we stay there, we shouldn't have to worry about it."

"Ok then. Let's just head to Peatalburg Woods like we had planned to do. I'll go stand watch until we arrive. Shade needs a break."

I hoped I was right about staying in Hoenn to avoid the vision. I didn't know too much of what to expect since this had been my first vision. All I knew was that no matter what, I would make sure that nothing I had seen will ever happen to Talia.

(A/N) Well, so much for trying to update sooner that I had been. Going to hope I didn't lose you all with time and will do my best to get better at this scheduling thing. The vision part of the chapter was edided by The Cynical Asian (Unless he changes his username again!) Hope you enjoy This chapter received more work than any other so far and I think it's might be the second best to date. ~Night


	7. Chapter 7 - Recurring Nightmare

Chapter 7 - Recurring Nightmare

The ship rumbled for a bit before it came to a dead stop. We were finally able to get off this damned ship. The sight of nothing but boxes the last few days was starting to make me feel insane. I met up with Shade, Shine, and Talia and we began the task of getting off the ship unseen. Shine led us since she was the smallest and the fastest. She would check to see if anyone was looking before running to another piece of cover, checking to see if she had been seen, and then giving us a signal to follow her. We made it to the main deck of the ship before I suggested we go off the back of the ship and swim to an area not visible to the humans. There were other ways of going, but the dust from under the ship was all over my fur, and I wanted it off as soon as possible.

I jumped off the side and landed in the warm ocean water. I enjoyed the feeling of the water for a second before I surfaced and watched my companions follow as I had done. There was an area that had many large rocks around it, perfect for keeping out of sight, and we swam over to it. I looked back at the ship and there were a few humans in weird uniforms on the top of the ship. I ignored them, since they didn't appear to see us. From there, we found a tall hill that gave us a good view of Slateport. As I looked over the town, I slowly began to realize that this city looked different than I remembered. Talia seemed to noticed too before she spoke.

"This isn't Slateport," she said.

"What!" Shine said, 'Where are we then?"

"I don't know." I said. This area I had never seen before. We must have been in a region that I had never been in, and there were few that met that description.

"Gateon Port." Talia said. "I had been here with Zack once before. This is the Orre Region."

I flinched at the mention of the region name. "Are there any large cities in this region?" I asked Talia quietly.

"Not that I know of. There are some medium sized ones, but not like you had described." She answered.

I sighed in relief. "Talia, who told you that the ship had been going to Hoenn?"

She thought back for a moment. "Someone in the town we left in. There had been two ships and he assured me this one was the one heading to Hoenn,"

I thought back to the strangely dressed people I saw. "Were they dressed in weird uniforms that looked kind of futuristic?"

Talia stared at me surprised. "Yea, how did you know?"

"I saw some people dressed like that on the ship." The situation was suspicious, but I decided to shrug it off. "So, should we find a ship that is actually heading to Hoenn now?" I asked half-sarcastically.

Talia gave me a dirty look from my comment. "Yea, who's coming into town with me?"

I didn't plan on going into any town of humans. I looked at Shade and Shine. I expected Shine to speak, but what happened was surprising.

"I'll go," Shade spoke. "If I don't, I will be alone with this one," Shade indicated towards me.

What? Since when did Shade have a problem with me. I saved him and Shine from that human, and he said thank you, or did Shine say thank you for him. I couldn't remember now. He barely spoke to anyone besides Shine.

"Alright then, lets go," Talia said and they began to leave for Gateon.

I looked at Shine. "What the hell is his problem?"

"I don't know," she replied. "He never said anything about you to me."

"Oh," I said. I told myself that when he returned I would find out what his deal was with me. We would talk it out, and if I had to, I would make him tell me.

A few hours went by, and I became more worried as time passed. What was taking them so long? Shine kept trying to keep me from running into the town to try to find them, and I tried my best to listen, until a feeling hit me that I remembered. It was a small feeling in the back of my head, before it hit me. That unbearable pain in my head, only this time it was much more painful, tearing at my brain itself. My vision faded as I thought I heard Shine say 'Not again'.

An alley faded into view with four or five humans dressed in some weird cyberpunk uniforms. It was the same uniform as the ones on the ship had been wearing. I couldn't count them as I was sure I might be seeing double from the pain I felt. They stood next to what looked like a van with no tires, just these flat round metal pieces that weren't even holding up the van. They seemed to talk about how their plan to hijack a ship had been successful. Did they mean the ship we had been on? Did they bring us here? Another human dressed like them ran into the alley as I asked these questions. He walked over to the others and it sounded like he said 'they are coming'. As he said that, they all proceeded to hide in different dark corners and another one walked into the alley, and my heart sunk as Talia and Shade were right behind him. Talia stopped and sniffed at the air, and I was sure she would smell the attack and flee, but she then proceeded. She hadn't sensed them. She was walking right into it. As they approached the van, I saw more humans on the top of the alley, all dressed in the same outfit. What had they told her that she was following this one human?

As if on cue, they all rushed out and attacked. Three each jumped on Talia and Shade, and the others sent out Pokemon. They weren't normal though. Most had a color that was different of their own species. They had a mixture of purple, black, and a dark gray. They had no emotion in their eyes. As Talia and Shade fought to fend off the three humans each had to fight, the Pokemon that were sent out suddenly grew a purple mist and rushed at them. At the last second, the humans moved and Talia and Shade were hit by what seemed to be a never-ending barrage of purple shrouded take downs. Talia fell first, as no Absol could take nearly that many hits. Shade held on though, as he was hit over and over. He couldn't make any attacks, but he refused to fall. It took five more minutes of the never-ending assault for him to pass out. A last pulse of pain surged through my head as the scene faded from my view. Shine reappeared and looked beyond worried.

I told her the whole event before rushing into the town. I didn't even know if Shine was behind me, but at this moment, it mattered little to me. I ran down every alley I could find, pushing any humans that were walking out of my way. They didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. I wasn't losing Talia. This is all I could hear echoing in my head. As I ran down the next alley, I saw Talia and Shade in the back of the van as the doors were closed. The van then rose off the ground, and I realized the metal circles were hover plates. It then drove off at a surprising speed leaving some of the humans behind. It was out of sight before I could react. I wouldn't let them escape me, though.

I ran at the humans it left, as I mentally planed their ends. It was too late before they realized I was there. The first one I reached received no warning or mercy as I prepared a Shadow Claw and slashed at his neck. He was dead before he even hit the ground. The others reached for their Pokeballs, but I reached them too fast. I kicked two of them over leaving one left standing. I knocked him over and bit down on his neck, ripping it open as I tore. The blood, I almost missed the taste. When he no longer screamed, I looked at the other two, who had been petrified in fear watching me. I prepared a Razor Wind and a sharp breeze cut through the alley and swirled around me. One of the humans got up and ran. Just as he looked to be safe. I unleashed my attack as the wind flew at him at speeds unbelievable. The wind surrounded him, picking him up off the ground before it looked like thousands of invisible swords sliced him apart. Blood flew off of him coating the alley's walls. When the wind died out, he too fell to the ground motionless. I looked at the last human who was shaking uncontrollably. I placed my paw on his neck and roared as loud as I could at him. He got the point.

"To the north!" he screamed in fear. "The van is going to a research lab to the north!"

I smiled as I lifted my paw and began to walk away. The human didn't move, or notice the wind that shot through the alley again. As I turned out of the alley, a loud scream of pain could be heard from the alley. My work was done. I saw Shine, who looked half-terrified at me.

"Don't worry, that side of me could only be brought out by a human. We need to head north," I said softly. I began to run in the direction of where the human had said, and I wasn't stopping until I could see the research lab. Shine should be right next to me as she was faster, but when I looked behind me, I could tell she was keeping a large distance between us. I didn't know how long she would stay like this, but I hoped she would be able to at least speak to me by the time we got to the lab. I was going to need help to free Talia and Shade.

(A/N) Here you go. Chapter 7 has been done for a while, but I needed to hold onto this one for a while. Approaching a story bridge with Nanoman94 again. Hope you all enjoy this chapter and until my next chapter, Farewell ~Night


	8. Chapter 8 - Shocked into Submission

Chapter 8 – Shocked into Submission

I sighed. Spending hours in this tree instead of inside the lab was irritating me. We had arrived at the lab last night, but Shine had insisted we rest first and then scout the building out. She seemed to have a plan for getting Talia and Shade out without putting any unnecessary lives at risk. I didn't care much for it. I wanted the blood of anyone involved with Talia's kidnapping. Shine had been out for about an hour, before I saw a pink spot in a tree nearby and suddenly Shine jumped to the tree I was in. She had a smile on her face, and I knew that she had a plan.

We moved to oversee a back entrance. Two guards stand by the door, in a light conversation. Shine gestured to the door, and I made my move. I pounced from the tree, claws first, and landed directly on one of the guards. Before the other could shout for help, a night slash entered his throat. The guard beneath me was then greeted to my claws inside his esophagus, as they ripped at anything they felt. When I was sure they were dead, I stepped off the guard and signaled Shine to jump down. She had that look of fear that I saw in the town, but she forced herself to swallow it as we quietly entered the back door.

The room we entered appeared to be a storage room. There were plenty of metal shelves holding wooden crates. What they contained wasn't important to me. Step two was now in motion. Shine entered an air vent, smaller than the one I had used to secure Talia's necklace, so I couldn't follow. Shine would use the air vents to lead me to rooms that had no trace of a human, and I would silently enter. A staircase was finally visible in one room, heading downward. As I descended the stairs, I realized that it was made of some metal, and my claws made a scrape sound with each step. I did my best to prevent my claws from making contact, but they weren't retractable so I was left to walk in an awkward way. Shine giggled from the vent she was in, and the giggle echoed and became too loud for my taste.

"Shut it, Shine," I whispered. Her head became visible through the next grating as she said she was sorry. I looked down the hall, and saw the shadow of a human beginning to appear around the corner. I quickly jumped into the first room I saw and hid behind a desk of some kind. As I peaked over the top, a small group of humans walked down the hall. No conversation They seemed to be focused on something as they head back the way I had come and I heard their feet go up the staircase. Shine whispered an 'all clear' to me and we proceeded down the hall again. We reached another staircase, and another, and after a while I wasn't sure how deep underground we were. The number of humans we saw began to increase, and constantly hiding from them was starting to agitate me. I could handle all of them. I could clean this building out, but Shine didn't want to see the blood-shed, so I fought back the urges to kill, and continued to hide.

The next floor we entered appeared to be what we were looking for. There were heavy metal doors with small windows near the top. Every room I looked in had a pokemon in it. Most of the time they were huddled in the corner. In each room was a pile of hay that I assumed was for sleeping. They all looked to be somewhat starved, and if they weren't, then they were definitely very sick. I reached a room that surprised me when I peaked in. This room looked to be a normal room. There was a bed, a desk, and a table with some sort of cards on them. Inside the room was a Gardevoir, but she was different that the normal. Where she should have green on her body, there was a blue color. Not a dark blue, more of a cyan color. She noticed me staring in, and I jumped down from the window. I don't know why she had a better room than the rest of these pokemon, but it wasn't any of my concern. I still had yet to see Talia or Shade.

The rooms seemed to be never-ending, stretching down into other hallways. I had seen many pokemon, but none were who I wanted to see. Then, as I peaked into the next room, there was Talia. She was sleeping, and her room contained a bed, instead of a pile of hay. I noticed that around her neck wasn't the necklace, but some black collar with a small box on the back. I thought back to the other pokemon I had seen, and realized they all had the same collar, but I hadn't noticed before. I tapped on the window into the room, and Talia turned towards the door. When she saw me, she jumped up and reached up to meet my eyes through the window. She smiled at me, and I saw it in her eyes. She wasn't just happy to see that she was being rescued, but she appeared to be happy to see me as well. Then, she looked down, and looked to be angry at something, before she re-locked her eyes with mine, but with no smile this time. We just stared for a while before Shine slid out of a nearby air vent.

"Are you two done now?" she said slightly annoyed. "We still need to find Shade, remember."

Talia looked confused, as I remembered she hadn't understood a work that Shine had just said.

"Go try to find the room he's in while I find out how to get Talia out of this room," I said.

"We shouldn't split up. What if one of us gets caught Dusk?" Shine said sternly.

"Just go find Shade!" I half-yelled. Shine glared at me before climbing back into the air vents. My attention was brought back to Talia, as I determined the best course of action to open the door. I slid my horn in-between the door and the wall to try to slice the lock from the side, but after several attempts to cut it, I gave up on that. Anger began to rise again. Now that I found Talia, I still couldn't save her. My sense of reasoning was lost, as I screamed and slammed into the door with full force. A large dent was in the door, and suddenly, I found myself constantly slamming into the door. Over and over, I tried to knock the door off. The side of my body I was using was in a lot of pain, and bruising would follow this, but I just kept slamming into the door. The door seemed to be giving way and as I went to slam again, I heard Talia scream.

"Look out!" she yelled.

As I turned my attention to behind me, I saw at least a dozen guards running towards me. It had never occurred to me how much noise I was making. No matter though, as I charged a night slash and sent it at the legs of the guards. Most managed to jump to the side, but four were hit and knocked over. I ran at them, preparing to slice them open. As I reached the first guard, I felt myself get tackled by one of the other guards. He wanted to protect those who I had already made fall, so be it. I brought my horn down into the side of his neck, and I felt his grip on me loosen. I stood up as his body fell to the ground. By now, all of the guards were back on their feet. I took a defensive stance now, as I awaited their moves.

I analyzed my opponents, and realized they didn't have any pokeballs. How did they plan to defeat me? They had no chance. Then, every guard pulled out a knife. Did they think they could have a shot of even scratching me with those? Not even in their dreams. Three of them charged at me, and I easily parried their knives with my horn and tail before tearing at one of them with my claws. Blood oozed from the cuts on his chest, and he retreated. Then, all of the remaining guards charged, and suddenly I found myself only able to parry attacks. There was no opening to attack. Any time I tried, I was forced to dodge or block an incoming knife stab. I needed some distance, as I jumped up over them and landed behind them. I started unleashing a barrage of psycho cuts and night slashes at the now grouped up guards as red liquid flew in all directions. I stopped to survey the damage.

Six more lay dead, three were seriously wounded, and the last two only had minor scratches. Then I felt a pain in my left side, I roared out and jumped away from where I had been. The guard that retreated had come up from my blind eye and cut into my side with his knife. I quickly observed the wound, and found that it wasn't too serious, but damn did it hurt. I repositioned my stance to be slightly to the right, so that my good eye faced them completely. Six guards now stood before me. Half were already on the verge of bleeding to death, and could barely stand. I forced the pain from my cut out of my mind, and began to advance on the guards. To my surprise, one of the guards who wasn't too badly cut up ran. He was fleeing, leaving the rest to die. I smirked at the remaining five. A sharp wind cut through the hall, and I released it from my control in their direction. In a matter of seconds, none were left standing. I lifted myself back up to look into Talia's window, but to my surprise, she screamed at me.

"Don't let the other guard get help!" She yelled, concern in her voice.

I didn't want to leave her in her room, but she just kept yelling at me to stop the guard. I gave in to her wishes though, and ran after where the guard had gone. As I ran down the hall, I reached a door. It wasn't reinforced like the cell doors had been. I prepared myself, and ran full speed into the door, causing it to smash open, and actually come off it's hinges and land on the floor. I looked around the room, to see the guard that had ran talking to a woman. She appeared to be using some sort of communication device, and was shouting through it.

"No!" she yelled, "HQ has been breached! We're being attacked by an Absol! Situation critical! Activate XD-033 immediately!" She turned to me, and I saw Talia's necklace. She was wearing it!

"How dare you defile Talia's necklace you disgusting human!" I shouted.

The woman appeared to be surprised at how she had just understood me.

"That necklace is how you can hear me! Stand down and free Talia, or I will rip you to pieces where you stand!" I roared out.

She appeared to think for a moment, before she regained her composure. "So, that is why the subject had this jewelry. We should study this as well. She wrote something on a piece of paper. "Now, as for you, Absol. You should surrender, before you cause something undesirable to happen." She spoke calmly, no fear in her voice.

"Give me the necklace, or I will take it from your cold, limp body!" I yelled.

"Interesting," she said calmly. Her calmness was beginning to drive me insane. She pulled out some sort of device with buttons on it. She pressed one, and a screen appeared that showed Talia in her cell. "Is this the one you wish to free?" she asked.

"No! She is the one I will be freeing!" I yelled.

"Do you know what happens if I press this button?" she asked, placing her finger on another button on her device. She pressed it, and I felt my eyes go wide. Talia was being electrocuted from the collar she was wearing. "Surrender to us, or she will not survive. Act fast. I doubt she will last through this minute."

I felt a tear in my eye as I realized I couldn't save Talia from this nightmare. I lowered my head in defeat and forced myself to lay down on the ground. She pressed the button again, and Talia was no longer being electrocuted. She fell over onto her side, and she wasn't moving. I could see she was breathing though and I sighed in relief. The woman gestured with her hand and three guards quickly grabbed me and held me down. She pulled out one of those black collar devices and placed it around my neck, and suddenly I felt most of my energy become sapped away, as if the collar weakened me or something. It was a symbol of my defeat. I suppressed my anger, for Talia's sake, and I was led to a cell. The door closed, and I looked out the window to my room. The door across from mine was severely dented, and I realized where I was. Talia looked through her window, some of her fur around her neck was singed by the electricity. I couldn't hold back my tears as I looked across to her. I went over to the pile of hay in my room to lie down as the pain from my cut was now remembered, and quietly cried to myself. I had failed.

* * *

(A/N) Wow. This Chapter was hard to write. The wording was so hard for me to figure out, and I had severe writer's block the entire time, but I guess I've managed to force through it with help from Nanoman94. Hope it didn't come with a decrease in quality of writing. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't be afraid to leave a review with your opinions. I feed off any review, and am looking for constructive criticism above all. As long as it isn't just flames, I'm fine with it. Your choice to review though. ~Night


	9. Chapter 9 - Unexpected Visitor

Chapter 9 – Unexpected Visitor

My eyes opened, and I remembered where I was, and how I had gotten here. I looked out the window to my cell to see two guards on each side of my door. I looked across hoping to see Talia, but she wasn't visible from her window. My side started to pulse in pain, and I began to feel the consequences from my reckless door slamming. One side pulsed in pain, and the other was still sore from the cut I had received. All in all, I felt pain and regret for being so reckless in the plan. The plan. Shine!

I looked at any air vent I could see, but she was no where to be found. Was she captured as well? Not likely, I told myself. She had stayed hidden, and the assumption from everyone was that I had come alone. So, where is she? Does she have another plan for rescue? I can't attempt to break free from my cell, for Talia's sake. If I show any sign of rebellion, Talia's life will be over before I have the chance to free her. That will _never_ happen. Talia will live a long, healthy, and happy life. I will guarantee that, even at the expense of my own life. For now, I had to drown my pride out and continue to submit.

Time went by, as nothing changed. No one entered my cell, the guards didn't move, and Shine was still nowhere to be seen. Hunger crawled into my mind, and I began to fear they would starve me. There was no food or water provided to me, like I would expect it though. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. I turned to analyze what I had seen, and found a small purple rat slowly crawling against the wall towards a tiny hole in the wall. I smirked a little, before pouncing on the rattata. There was no time for the small rodent to run, and I surrounded it with my front paws.

"Sorry little one, but I need to eat something," I whispered to it before quickly plunging my claw into it's chest. I gave it a quick, painless death. Unlike the humans that had trapped me here, I had no qualm to my prey, and believed that their death's should come as painlessly as possible. No reason for them to suffer for my hunger. The rattata didn't fill me up much, but it gave me some kind of food to distract my stomach. With nothing else to do, I curled back up on my pile of hay and found sleep once more.

"Halt, state your business," My eyes opened, but there was no one in my cell still. Who just spoke?

Another voice became audible from the cell door.

"I'm here to see what happened. There's blood on the floor, and Mrs. Dakol's transmission cut short. As a half-mercenary of Cipher, I think I should know what happened."

That voice sounded more familiar, but I couldn't place it. I continued to listen.

"As for what happened, that's an easy one. An Absol came in, went crazy, and he's locked up in this room." The first voice said. It must be one of the guards, but who the hell are they talking with.

"May I speak with him?" The other voice spoke.

"It's your funeral, but I have nothing against it." The guard responded.

The door to my cell opened, and I stood, slightly defensive, as I awaited who was entering. There was no way to describe the shock that I felt as the human walked into my room. It was Zack!

"Dusk? What are you doing here?" he asked.

But... he had gone to meet with Arceus, uninvited at that. He should be long dead.

"What are you doing alive?" I asked back. "You said you were headed to the Hall of Origin. Why didn't Arceus smite you?"

"I saved his son, Giratina, from being trapped in the Reverse World. He thanked me, and promised a favor in return, since Kiara wasn't dead for him to bring back in the first place."

I tried to wrap my head around that sentence, but found that none of it was even possible. How could he have saved a legend such as Giratina? I tried to figure out any possible was that Zack could possibly still be breathing.

"He's immortal. That has to be the reason," I mutter.

"So, how did you come across this place? I mean, wasn't Talia with you?"

I shot a glare at him. The last thing I felt like talking about was how I had failed to protect Talia, and then followed that by failing to save her.

"Come on, I told you my half, now tell me yours."

I growled to myself, before giving in. I told him about the events that had transpired after he had left on his suicidal mission. From the ship bringing us to the wrong region because of this Cipher group, to how they had kidnapped Talia and Shade when I wasn't around, and finally how I had followed them to this lab with Shine and been forced to submit to that woman, Dakol.

"I'll talk to Mrs. Dakol, sort this out, and get you out of here. With Talia and Shade," he said as he stood to leave. I laughed under my breath.

"That'll work, sure," I gave him another glare before returning to my corner to lie down. The door closed one more time, and I heard him asking the guards for Dakol's location. In a short amount of time, I heard the sound of someone running in my cell's direction. I looked through to window and was surprised at what I saw. Zack and the oddly colored Gardevoir were running toward the two guards, and a blade was on Zack's metal arm. He pierced one of the guards gut, and the guard fell dead. It wasn't the cleanest kill, but I figured I could complain to him later. Then, the second guard flew up suddenly into the ceiling. I saw his head smash into it with a large amount of force, before he was suddenly dragged back to the floor. I could tell that after the first hit to the head, he had been dead, but either way, it was fun to watch.

The Gardevoir opened Talia's cell and Zack used the blade on his arm to slice the collar off of Talia. Talia's necklace must have been reacquired while Zack had been gone, because it was then placed back around her neck. Hopefully, when they grabbed it, they killed that demonic woman.

Talia showed her thanks to the Gardevoir, who I learned her name to be Kiara. So this was Zack's lover girl? But she was a pokemon, and he was human. I shrugged the thought out of my mind. There would be time for that later. I found my cell being opened, and Zack began to cut my own collar off. "What happened to diplomacy?" I asked, but I wasn't focused on his response, and I walked past him to Talia. She nuzzled against my neck, and I returned the gesture. It felt nice, and found myself wanting to forget everything else and focus on Talia, but we still had to get out of this HQ.

We began to walk down the tunnels, before guards began to file in all around us. Some sent out the weird pokemon again. One was an umbreon, but his rings had become a dark purple color, and suddenly I realized who it was. Shade.

The fight began, and I found myself working with Zack to cover the front. I charged forward to tackle one of the guards and slashed into his stomach a few times. As I stood from the kill, I saw Zack jump over me to launch a sphere of energy at a Raichu. Was that focus blast, I asked myself, but before I could think more about it, Shade slammed into me. I found myself sliding across the hall, before regaining my traction and standing again. Shade charged at me again, but I bit down on his neck and vaulted him over me into a wall, knocking him unconscious. He wasn't hurt too bad though, and Kiara grabbed Shade in her arms. She ran into a gap in the guards, and I found everyone else following her. There were still guards breathing and every part of me wanted to fix that problem, but I didn't want to get left behind so I ran after them. We made it back to the main level, and ran outside the lab. Zack jumped into one of the human's weird vehicles.

"Come on, get in!" He shouted to us. I found myself in the back with Talia, as Kiara placed Shade's unconscious body between us. Kiara got into the front with Zack, and Shine shoved herself into the back.

"Shine, where were you?" I asked.

"The air ducts," She responded.

Suddenly, the vehicle roared to life and shot forward, and we were leaving the entire lab behind. The guards didn't appear to be pursuing us, and things quieted down quickly. We were driving down a road that cut into a desert. The road itself was barely visible under sand, and Zack was driving particularly fast.

Talia leaned forward to Zack. "Zack, you do know how to drive, right?" She asked.

"Uhh... more or less..." he responded.

Wait, we were in a speeding vehicle with someone who didn't know how to drive in control, and on top of that, we were in a part of the desert with large cliffs, drop-offs, and rifts that came extremely close to the road that was barely visible. That response wasn't going to cut it for me.

"WELL, IS IT MORE OR LESS," I shouted at Zack. As if on cue, Zack tried to make the next turn, but the vehicle had no traction because of the speed we were going and the sand on the road. Sure enough, we went off into one of the rifts, and we were now falling through the air. We were all going to die because of this... ARCEUS DAMN IT, HUMAN! I shot the sharpest glare I could at Zack, who was falling close to me.

"If we somehow survive, I'll kill you." I said to him, and I meant it. If we somehow survived this event, I would make sure he didn't live long after. Then, we hit something. Some kind of liquid. Water! It filled my mouth as I forced my way to the surface of the small lake we had landed on. The time it had been between now and my last drink had been so long, and I swallowed as much of it as I could. I dragged myself out of the lake, and exhaustion swept over me. I looked around to see everyone was in the middle of passing out, or already asleep. I forced myself to use the last bit of energy I had to crawl over to where Talia had fallen asleep, and wrapped myself around her. I was asleep before I could even enjoy the moment.

(A/N) Sorry for any confusion I caused when I originally uploaded this chapter. There was an error in it that I needed to fix still. I didn't realize it until I uploaded it. It's fixed now though, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to give me your pinions with a review if you want! ~Night


End file.
